Mobile food vendors who operate within unincorporated Harris County will be required to follow a host of new regulations starting Sept. 1, including visiting a cleaning facility daily and having access to a nearby bathroom with hot water — a move critics say is intended to drive the food trucks' mainly Hispanic owners out of business.

The new rules, which will affect as many as 650 licensed vendors who prepare food outside of city limits but within Harris County, are the result of recent changes to both county and state law. The new restrictions are intended to promote the safety of people who eat there, Harris County health officials announced Monday.

"We're going to try our best to get the information out to the people that we regulate to make sure that they have sufficient time to comply," said Bud Karachiwala, director of the county's Environmental Public Health Division. "Our responsibility is to enforce what the laws are ... and the law protects the public health."

The laws apply to vendors on wheels who prepare food and aren't allowed to park permanently in one location. Trucks that serve prepackaged ice cream, sandwiches or other secured food items don't have to follow the restrictions, Karachiwala said.

The rules will require mobile vendors to have an on-site manager trained in food safety whenever the business is open, and access to a restroom equipped with hot running water within 300 feet of where they operate. Portable restrooms aren't acceptable because there's no opportunity for vendors to wash their hands after using them, Karachiwala said. Vendors must have written permission to use the restroom and sell food on private property.

Vendors also will be required to visit one of the county's dozen registered commissaries every day for cleaning. The annual permit fee will increase to $250 from $150.

Some of the new regulations would put Harris County in line with the city of Houston, which has its own ordinances to regulate its 900 licensed vendors.

Although Houston requires mobile units to be cleaned at an approved commissary each day and to maintain records after each visit, it does not require them to have restrooms nearby.

Much like Harris County, however, Houston requires vendors to own the property where it does business or have written permission from property owners before setting up shop.

No illness complaints

The new regulations are intended to shut down those food trucks, which have become a visual symbol of changing demographics in some neighborhoods, he said.

"It's a clash of cultures," Fitzsimmons said. "What they want to do is regulate this kind of business out of business."

The new rules are unnecessary because there haven't been any problems with food safety, he said.

Indeed, the county hasn't received a single complaint about food-borne illnesses related to mobile vendors in the last few years, Karachiwala said. However, his staff said, that doesn't mean no one got sick, only that no one reported it. The 18 restaurant inspectors, who monitor both fixed-location establishments and mobile units, issued eight citations to mobile vendors in 2006. Those cited face fines up to $500.

Following the commissary requirement will be easy for drivers like Yoshio Saucedo, who drove his mobile food truck from one Pearland construction site to another on Monday. He visits one of the cleaning sites every day, he said.

"It's better if you keep it clean ... It does make a difference," Saucedo said as he washed, wiped and rinsed his truck, inside and out, from top to bottom, at Comisaria Tacos El Güero.

The wash, along with refreshing his water supply, costs him $12 a day. But patrons would rather buy tacos de pastor and Gatorade from a clean truck than a dirty one, he said.

Bathroom code a problem

The new bathroom code will be more difficult to follow, since portable toilets are the nearest restrooms where he typically works. Saucedo said he has both hot and cold water in his truck and will let the workers wash their hands if they want.

Vendors already are required to have access to a bathroom within 500 feet of wherever they serve food. But the 300-foot proximity and hot-water requirements are new.

"In order to properly wash your hands, you have to have hot and cold running water," Karachiwala said. "Many times sanitizers are used as a substitute, but they don't get all the bacteria killed."

Plenty of mobile vendors, however, don't visit the commissary daily. County officials haven't yet figured out how they'll enforce that requirement, Karachiwala said.

The city of Houston hasn't come up with an effective way to monitor vendors.

Because the paper receipts issued by commissaries are easy to forge, city and county officials are considering using an electronic system to track commissary visits.